Forbes’ Billionaires List for 2013 Revealed

March 5, 2013

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The American business magazine Forbes published its annual World’s Billionaires List for the 27th time in 2013. The ranking is based on net worths, as well as the assets value of the candidates, including cash money, real estate, art, private and public companies and etc. In addition, the magazine works in cooperation with experts in the field to provide the most accurate and detailed ranking possible. What is interesting about this year’s ten richest people is that not many of them have made their wealth through some tech corporation. It seems that investment and trading billionaires have taken the lead in 2013. Also, there are some entries from sectors like fashion and beauty.

Carlos Slim Helu & Family with estimated $73 billion from telecom industry – Helu takes the first position on list for the fourth consecutive time. The billionaire manages to keep his position due to the success of its companies Grupo Carso and Grupo Financiero. However, his most profitable undertaking continues to be the mobile telecom America Movil with its holdings value of $36.3 billion. In addition, in 2012 the company bought some shares from two other telecoms – Telekom Austria and KPN. Also, Helu works in spheres like real estate, mining and infrastructure. Amazingly, he is not CEO of any of his companies.

Bill Gates with estimated $67 billion from computer software industry – Even though Gates continues to give away his wealth to the poor and the sick, he is still in the top three of the richest people on the world. Microsoft’s backbone spent about $28 billion supporting various charity organizations and activities. Despite that his net worth jumped with the impressive $6 billion for only one year.

Amancio Ortega with estimated $57 billion from fashion retail industry – However, Gate’s net growth is nothing compared to Amancio Ortega. Ortega increased his wealth with $19.5 billion for a 12-month period. Although he is not a chairman of Inditex since 2011, he still has control on more than 60% of the company’s shares. Billionaire #3 is also the proud owner of a 43-floor skyscraper and a number of buildings in cities like New York, London, Madrid and Chicago.

Warren Buffett with estimated $53.5 billion from investments industry – Over the last few months, Buffett managed to strike some great deals. He purchased famous ketchup maker H.J. Heinz Co. for $23.2 billion and supplier Oriental Trading Co. for barely $1.2 billion. Similar to Bill Gates, Warren Buffett is also very dedicated to charity. In fact, Buffett and Gates tend to partner up in the name of big philanthropic causes. For example, Buffett donated $1.5 billion to the Gates Foundation last year. A couple of months later, he gave another $3 billion to different children’s foundations.

Larry Ellison with estimated $43 billion from enterprise software and computer hardware industries – In 2012, Ellison decided to make some big investments in the real estate sector. First, he purchased almost an entire island in Hawaii for which he spent only $500 million. The billionaire also bought two homes in Malibu, California which cost him about $55 million. In addition, his shares tech company Oracle jumped with 20% of which he donated around $445 million.

Charles Koch with estimated $34 billion from conglomerate and investments industries – Charles Koch is known as the CEO of Koch Industries. The company’s value has recently increased with about $20 billion due to many improvements and even more profits. However, Charles Koch’s political ambitions failed when he tried to compete with Barack Obama for the US president’s seat.

David Koch with estimated $34 billion form conglomerate and investments industries – David Koch is the brother of Charles Koch. Both of them enjoy a wealth of $34 billion and, as a result, their share the 6th spot on Forbes’s richest list. Compared to one year ago, this Koch brother has made $9 billion more. Like Chalres Koch, David also tried to take Obama out the White House. He is also very generous with his donations of over $1 billion. A big part of them went for medical research.

Li Ka-shing with estimated $31 billion from investments industry – Apart from being among the top 10 richest people on the world, Li Ka-shing is also the wealthiest person in Asia. Only in 2012 he managed to increase his net worth with about $5.5 billion. That was because the shares of his companies Hutchison Whampoa and Husky Energy made a 10% jump. Li Ka-shing is also known as the person behind some of the most international companies. His business empire includes more than 260,000 employees from over 50 different countries.

Liliane Bettencourt & Family with estimated 30 billion from cosmetics and beauty industry – Bettencourt is officially the richest women on the globe. However, she has not been among the 10 wealthiest people for 14 years. Together with her family, Liliane hold 30% of beauty and cosmetics company L’Oreal. The company did really well this year and added some more numbers to Bettencourt’s net worth.

Bernard Arnault & Family with estimated $29 billion from fashion and luxury industry – Last year, Arnault was occupying the 4th position in Forbes’ Billionaires List, but now he lands on the brink of the top 10. The reason is that his luxury goods company LVMH adopted a revised valuation method. In addition, his shares in Christian Dior trade 20% lower then before. Known for his passion for art, Arnault is planning to open a museum called the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation this year.